A Lot More Complicated
by TruePrincessSky
Summary: Carson discovers that he has an unusual power, one that makes his life a lot better... But with great power comes great responsibility, and a great need to control and hide it. ((Sorry I suck at summaries.))
1. Chapter 1

It promised to be a very boring day, Soren, my best friend, had to spend the day in the Nightosphere. Being a vampire he had duties to the vampire king, Marshall something, he talked much of his king, but to be fair I also spoke much of my princely ruler. Because, despite stereo-types, guys talk a lot also... Or, at least, Soren and I did.

I sat on the couch with my cottage mate, Petie the gumdrop. Petie and I had been friends, well, as long as I could remember, we had bought a cottage together a few years ago because neither of us could afford our own. It may come as strange to you, but in the Candy Kingdom- maybe in all of Aaa, people moved away from their parents at younger ages than they did before the Mushroom Wars. In fact, I've heard that before the wars, people usually lived with their parents until they were seventeen or eighteen years old. The prince's age! But, who knows? I've also heard that there was only one species consider people then, and that's ridiculous.

I sighed. "I'm bored," I said for probably the tenth time that morning.  
"Wanna play a game?" Petie asked. My friend seemed to always be in the mood for a game, but it wasn't like he didn't have any other friends... Right?  
I relented, "Sure, Pete. What do you have in mind?"  
The excited little gumdrop jumped off of the couch, "Truth or Dare?"

I had lived with Petie for three years, we had been saving for the cottage practically our whole lives, and had finally afforded it when I was fourteen, shortly before he turned fourteen. We only moved a couple blocks from our old houses (we had been neighbors growing up), and now lived closer to the gates of the Kingdom. It was a good choice of housing, really, making leaving the kingdom easier, which was a necessity since most of my friends lived outside. I had trouble believing that some people spent their entire lives without leaving the Candy Kingdom, but it's true.

"Dare," I answered. The game had been going on for a on for a couple turns now, and we had managed to somehow move outside the gates to the strawberry fields in between the kingdom and Fionna's place- not that I visited Fionna's house often...  
"I dare you to..." Petie's eye glinted mischievously. I shifted uncomfortably, all too familiar with that look. "Use you power," he said slowly.  
I knew I should have never told him about it.

You see, a couple years back, I found that if I... Well, I supposed _willed_ is the best term for it. If I _willed_ it, I could open a kind of... A hole, you could say, in the air. That probably doesn't make much sense to you, but it doesn't make sense to me either. I had been seven years old- a short time before I met Soren- and I was playing make-believe that I had magical powers, when suddenly things had turned not-so-make-believe and a glowing blue oval appeared in the air. It startled me so much that I almost completely stopped thinking. I curiously stepped forward. Through the ring, there appeared to be some other place, like... It was some kind of portal. I saw a girl through it, roughly the same age as I was. Something about her made me very uncomfortable, not in the way you might expect, for I was too young to be interested in girls yet, but something about her made me... Angry. And sad. And _very_ uncomfortable. The girl wore the same upset, slightly scared, expression as I did. I stumbled back and willed the hole shut, causing it to shrink and disappear.

"Petie, I'm not sure-"  
I was cut off as the little guys huffed, "Carson, aren't you at least a little curious about it?"  
"I'm not even sure it was me who opened it!" I protested.  
He sighed, and shrugged. "Then we'll never know," he said.  
"Fine." I knew he would continue arguing unless I relented now.

I turned so that my back was towards the kingdom walls, and closed my eyes in focus. I pictured that blue ring in the air, and willed it open. When I heard Petie gasp, I knew I had succeeded, and with a sense of dread, I opened my eyes. I saw that girl again, she was much older now, but the sight of her gave me that same nervousness as it had seven years ago. She appeared to be a candy person, same colored hair and skin as I, except slightly paler. She wore a light blue tank top and darker blue jeans, similar to my blue T-shirt and dark jeans. She even had the same haircut, except longer, a bit more feminine.

The girl stepped one leg through. "Who are _you_?!" she demanded.  
"Uh..." I raised an eyebrow, "What's it to you?"  
She narrowed her eyes, which I found irritating for some reason. "Well, you kind of appeared out of nowhere," she said.  
"Excuse me," I retorted, "I was here first. _You're_ the one who appeared in the air. Where do you come from?"  
"The Candy Kingdom. Now answer _my_ question. PLEASE." Her _please_ was more of a demand than a request.  
I answered, "My name is Carson. And yours?"  
"Caramel," she answered quickly, stepping the rest of the way through the, eh, let's call it a portal.  
"Who's the friend and what's with the floating circle?" I would have recognized that voice anywhere- even though it sounded _a lot_ more girly. _Puberty,_ I thought... But then, the voice was coming from the other side of the portal...  
"Soren?" I asked.  
"What?" This time his voice came from behind me, and sounded normal.  
I narrowed my eyes, "What the Nightosphere is going on?"


	2. Chapter 2

I turned slowly to face my friend. "Hi..." In response, Soren raised an eyebrow.  
"What?" he asked, "Is something wrong? Well, besides the glow-y blue ring in the sky."  
"Ginger?" Caramel asked, from behind could be heard a questioning, "Yes?" from the feminine Soren-voice.  
Soren nervously tugged at his tee shirt. "How do you know that name?" he asked.  
"What?!" I demanded, still totally puzzled about the situation, "Who's Ginger?"  
"I am," said two voices, both Soren and the girly-Soren.  
I rolled my eyes. "That clears it up," I said sarcastically. Then something clicked in my head.

Once, a long time ago, Soren told me that the other vampires used to call him "Ginger", because he was the only ginger vampire. But nobody had called him that for years. How would this girl, a total stranger, know his old nickname?

Another girl stepped through- or rather, _floated through_ the portal. A vampire girl, I frowned, a _ginger_ vampire girl. Ginger... Just like Soren. I was even more surprised when I realized they adorned to same _Bite Me!_ tee shirt, and pale blue rectangle glasses. This girl didn't upset me the way the other one did, in fact, I instantly liked her. NO! Not like, _liked_ her! I just felt very comfortable with her presence. Although, Soren didn't appear to feel the same.

I glanced back and forth between the vampires, "Soren, I thought you were the only..?" I trailed of with a shudder when I realized that, at exactly the same time as I had said that, Caramel said, "Ginger, I thought you were the only ginger vampire?" I glanced sideways at her, and her eyes seemed to shift slowly towards me.  
"Did we just..?" she asked. I nodded. "Okay, weird," she said with a deep breath. Again, I nodded, unconsciously matching her deep breath.  
"Okay, you two need to, like, stop," said both vampires at once. Caramel and I gave them matching- or at least I assume they were matching, raised eyebrows.  
"Or not," mumbled the female ginger.  
"So..." I said, glancing at Caramel and girl-Soren. "Who are you, again?"  
Caramel gestured to her floating friend, "This is Sarah, but always call her Ginger if you value your existence, she is- or, rather, was the only ginger vampire we knew of. And I..." She put her hand on her chest. "Am Caramel, of the Candy Kingdom. So who in the cosmos are you two?"  
"Soren," I said, pointing at him, "Former only ginger vampire in existence, lives in the Nightosphere under the rule of Vampire King Marshall Lee-"  
"Wait who?" Ginger interrupted, "You said King. You mean _Queen_ Marceline."  
Soren and I exchanged looks. "No..." he said slowly, "_King Marshall Lee._"  
Ginger raised an eyebrow, "The King's name is Hunsen Abadeer, Marceline's dad."  
Soren narrowed his eyes, "_Hannah_ Abadeer, _Marshall's mother._"  
"Are we sure there's only one Nightosphere?" Caramel asked. Both vampires gave her a look that said, _don't be stupid._ and Ginger snapped her fingers.  
"I know!" she said.  
I knew that look, crazy theorizing time. Soren wore it all the time. I never rejected his theories, just kinda... Set them aside until we had some sort of proof.  
"We come from alternate universes," Soren said with a nod, Ginger immediately copied the nod and agreed, "Exactly what I was thinking."  
"WHICH IS PROOF!" Soren announced, "You two are female versions of us from some other place! Only explanation."

I glanced at Caramel, _So that's what I would look like as a girl?_ I thought.  
"But..." I said, Caramel seemed to be thinking the same thing. Naturally. I continued, "I got here through a portal I created _with my mind._"  
"Same." Caramel nodded, she seemed to be evaluating my appearance, not something I'm really used to, but it was only natural I suppose. I also looked her over, because who hasn't, at some point, wondered how they'd look with their gender swapped?

"So... How come we aren't doing the _exact same_ thing as our genderbent counterpart?" I asked.  
Both gingers rolled their eyes, as if it were obvious. "I said _alternate_ universes," Soren said.  
"Not _parallel_," Ginger agreed.  
I was used to condescension from Soren, but to have _two_Soren's rolling their eyes at me was definitely worse. I rolled my eyes back and looked at fem-me. She kind of creeped me out, honestly. She looked almost exactly the same as me, except with... Femininity. Her hair reached mid-way down her back and was a little bit lighter than my own, but other than that (and some anatomical differences,) we looked almost identical. I shuddered.

"Still doesn't explain the portal," I stated blankly.

Ginger nodded, "You're right, boy-Mel. We should investigate."

After hours of unproductively examining the portal from either side, I was developing a headache. Caramel and I seemed to be tiring faster than the vampires, presumably because we had to hold the portals open. Soren and Ginger agreed to let us close the portal, we all said goodbye as though it may be the last time seeing each other (of course I knew it wouldn't,) and closed the portals.

I turned to Soren and said, "That was weir... WHAT?!" It wasn't Soren. Apparently, my vampire friends thought it would be funny to switch out with each other. Floating before me, with her clean nails and pulled-back hair, was Ginger. _Great,_ I thought. I didn't even know what she was like... Did I?

"Hi..." I said with uncertainty, "What... What're you doing here?"

"Wait, what?" Sarah seemed just as surprised as I was. "Did I get stuck on the wrong side of the portal?!" she sounded a bit panicky.

"Yep," I raised my eyebrows as I said the word. "Apparently, you'll be staying here for a while."

She frowned. "Reopen the portal," she demanded.

I shrugged. "Sorry. Too tired. Don't have the strength. Get back to me tomorrow." I started to head back to the Kingdom gates.

"Wait!" she called, flying up beside me, "Where should I stay?"

As if it were obvious, (which I would presume it was,) I said, "The Nightoshpere..? If you're right, this place should almost exactly like where you live." I started walking again.

"What if it isn't?"

I sighed, but continued walking. "Should be."

"The vampire royals would notice that I'm not Soren."

I rolled my eyes, and huffed.

Our conversation continued like this until she had actually followed me all the way to my house.

"Fine, sleep in the living room!" I finally said.

The next morning I hauled myself out of bed and walked toward the living room. Having completely forgotten about the night before, I assumed that the red-haired figure floating in a heap over my couch was my best friend.

"Geez, Soren. Get a hair cut," I said as I walked into the kitchen and began preparing breakfast. I heard him yawn awake, I asked, "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Mm?" his voice was... Off; it didn't sound right.

I turned around and jumped at the sight messy-haired _girl_ on my couch. She suppressed a scream, and we both had to stare at each other for a moment before I said, "Oh, right. From the portal."

She nodded, and we both let out a sigh of relief.

Later we headed out for the strawberry fields so we could open another portal and return Soren and Ginger to their own universes. We entered her universe, but Soren and Caramel were not on the other side. I frowned.

"That's odd," I observed. "Where are they?" I stepped through the portal, followed by Ginger, and we started heading to the alternate dimension Candy Kingdom.

We found Caramel's house and walked inside.

"Hello?" Ginger called. No response.

I walked back to what I assumed was Caramel's bedroom. "Soren?" I shouted. "Uh..." I mumbled, feeling my forehead wrinkle. "Where are you?"

"Find them?" Ginger had silently floated up beside me.

"No." I didn't like this, something just didn't feel right.

Ginger had walked back out. "What's this?" I heard her say, "Carson!" She yelled, "You better come see this!"

I ran to the kitchen...


	3. Chapter 3

I skidded around the corner to see Ginger standing in front of the fridge.

"What? What is it?" I walked up beside her and looked over her shoulder. _A note?_

She began reading aloud, "_Ging I'm hoping against hope that you'll get this message. I'm in trouble. I'm not sure what's happening yet, but someone or something is hiding in this house, all of the doors and windows are stuck and we're pretty sure something bad is about to NEVER MIND THAT I havo-_"  
Ginger stumbled, "Have_ to hurry I don't know what this is but it's going to do something bad. It's got me PLEASE HE..._ And... That's all there is..." She stared at the note for a second.

Neither of us said anything for a good minute, something had our friends. Something mysterious and bad. And it was going to do something bad to them, maybe even... _No._ I told myself. _Soren... And Caramel, will be fine. They're alive somewhere and I have to find them._

I put my hand on Ginger's shoulder, and she looked up at me with watery eyes. "We'll find them," I assured her, "We'll bring them home." She just looked back at the paper.

The problem with finding kidnapping victims is not knowing where to start looking. Ginger and I sat on Caramel's couch, a map of Ooo (that's what I'm told this other universe refers to this land by) on the coffee table.

I sighed, "Any ideas?" I asked. Ginger shook her head. "Yeah..." I mumbled, "Me either..." I sighed again.

I remember when I first met Soren. I'd been hanging out at Fionna's tree-house with Cake, waiting for Fionna to get home from a meeting with the vampire king. Cake and I were playing on GMO when the door opened. Apparently, Marshall had intended to escort Fionna home but had other things to tend to, so he sent a servant. Soren.

"Did the meeting go well?" I asked.

Fionna nodded and started for the stairs. "I just gotta go freshen up and then we can go to the Kingdom," she said as she bounced up the stairs.

"Okay!" I called, and looked at the vampire still standing in the doorway. He grinned at me. "What?" I asked.

He shook is head. "Nothin'," he said, "My name's Soren, by the way. What's yours?"

"Carson..." I said slowly, "You work for Marshall?"

He nodded. "And you?" he asked.

"Gumball," I answered proudly, "I'm taking Fionna to the Candy Kingdom to see him."

Just then Fionna bounded back down the stairs, "Okay, I'm ready!" she said.

As we headed out, I said to Soren over my shoulder, "See you around, guy!"

We didn't talk again for weeks after that, but we bumped into each other eventually, and we hit it off, becoming fast friends. We'd been inseparable ever since.

"Well," Ginger interrupted my thoughts, "We're not gonna find them by sitting around. Let's get Finn and Jake to help us, and-"

"Who?" I interrupted, "Who are Finn and Jake?"

"Um... Friends of mine. Finn's this adventurer who knows everybody, and Jake's his adopted brother," she said.

I nodded. "Fionna and Cake," I said. "Yeah, okay... Good idea."

It didn't take long to get to Fionna- I mean _Finn_'s house. Ginger knocked on the door, which was answered by a small yellow dog.  
"It's Ginger!" he called inside. He turned, to us. "Come in."  
I looked around in bewilderment, the treehouse looked just like Fionna's... But the occupants were different.  
"Finn!" Ginger yelled, as she flew up to him. "Look what we found at Caramel's house!" Ginger handed Finn the note.  
He read it over, his eyebrows scrunching together as he read.

As they talked, the yellow dog came over to me and asked, "So, like, who are you?"  
"It's kind of complicated," I said, "I guess you could say I'm Caramel's... Brother?"  
"Well I'm Jake," he said. "Finn's brother."  
I stared at him. "You're... A dog," I pointed out.  
"A _magic_ dog," he corrected. "So?"  
"I... Expected a cat." Jake frowned. "Never mind," I sighed.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N This chapter was written by GingerRoot15, not me. Enjoy.**

"Finn, you've got to help us," I begged, urgency clearly visible in my voice. I mean, if I could hear it, who knew what everyone else was hearing?  
He smiled kindly. "Come on, Ginger, you know we will. Caramel's our friend too, and if Soren is anything like you, he's worth rescuing too."  
I just about sobbed with relief. "Thank you," I threw my arms around him in a hug. A friendly hug, not anything more. At least, that's how I intended it.  
I had already taken the time to explain the whole alternate universe/genderbent counterparts thing, which was the whole reason Finn wasn't freaking out about Carson anymore, and even knew who Soren was. Of course, me being me, I'd made the stupid mistake of explaining it my way before realizing Finn didn't understand a word I was saying; speed-talking probably hadn't helped either. My original explanation had gone something along the lines of: "Hi Finn, this is Carson, Caramel's alter-ego genderbent-type person; he's from an alternate universe where everyone is the opposite gender, you included- she's Fionna, apparently- and it's not parallel, by the way, which is why Soren and Caramel aren't here with me. Soren is my counterpart and he and Caramel... well, you read the note, anyway, we need your help!"  
Finn had just kind of stared at me before asking, "Uh... what?"  
That was when I realized I had explained way too fast, and decided to put it into layman's terms as well, and let Finn ask questions if need be.  
Said method worked a lot better.  
Carson was poking around the treehouse, commenting vaguely about how similar it was to Fionna's. I wanted to turn to him and say, _it's an alternate universe, what do you expect?_ But I'm a nice person. So, I didn't.


End file.
